Words you Hate but have resigned yourself they are here to stay

[eschereal]

@GuanoLad

I hate “alternate” when it ought to be “alternative”.

“Alternate” is to swap repeatedly from one thing to another. And it rhymes with “hate”.

“Alternative” is the singular secondary option.

It’s mostly American usage, and it’s too late to change your habits now, but it will bother me until my dying day.

I disagree. On a jury, for example, there are often 3 extra panelists who hear the case and may take part in the deliberations if one of the primary jurors becomes unable to participate. They are called “alternates” (rhymes with “sluts”), and it feels like a more appropriate word than “alternatives”.

There are a number of English words that behave like this, with one pronunciation for the verb and the other for the related noun. One example is “precipitate” (the noun usage is a bit obscure, confined almost exclusively to chemists). Another is “delegate”. There is also “deliberate”. “Appropriate” has an adjective form and an alternate verb form, though they are more distantly related.

English is wonderfully and frustratingly flexible.

[John_Mace]

I hate all “words”. Why, when I was growing up (in the Stone Age) we got along perfectly well with grunts and hand gestures. It’s all been downhill since some young upstart invented “words”! And get off my front rubble pile!!

[pulykamell]

@eschereal

I disagree. On a jury, for example, there are often 3 extra panelists who hear the case and may take part in the deliberations if one of the primary jurors becomes unable to participate. They are called “alternates” (rhymes with “sluts”),

Rhymes with “slits” for me (and that’s what this dictionary shows, too.) It might possibly edge towards a schwa, but not like the “u” in “slut,” at least in my dialect.

[Jennshark]

“Literally.” No, dear-student-with-an-intact-head, your brain did not literally explode trying to understand this week’s reading.

I love British accents, but “aluminIUm” chaps my hide.

My favorite Simpson’s word is “embiggens.” It doesn’t seem to register with anyone else so I’ve ceased using it.

CNN Speak: “pivot,” “going forward,” and “optics.” These terms don’t embiggen understanding at all.

Our new college president is especially fond of using “onboarding” to describe initiatives aimed at educating students about our new online systems. My brain always substitutes “waterboarding” when it is said or appears in memos (which, given our scattered/poorly planned “virtual campus,” is probably a more apt term).

Come to think of it, I also hate “virtual campus.”

[salinqmind]

@Arcite

I could say the same thing from the other side of the pond. I’ve noticed a recent trend of pretentious, SWPL Americans using “holiday” instead of “vacation,” or “mum” instead of “mom.”

And while most of the other examples you give make sense, the Britishism “holiday” has always bothered me. The word means “holy day.” It originated as a term for a particular calendar day, like Christmas or Easter, that society as a whole commemorates for a particular reason. Morphing it into a generic term for an unspecified period of time off from work, such that going to the beach for a week is going “on a holiday,” seems a stretch. “Vacation,” from a latin word for freedom or absence of something, makes more sense.

1. they don’t go ‘on A holiday’, they ‘go on holiday.’ Just as they don’t go 'to A hospital, they ‘got to hospital’. Just a little thing, but leaving that ‘A’ out bugs me. Vacations and hospitals are indeed destinations, but there are more than one of each, they aren’t monolithic.
2. Vacay. “I’ll be on vacay next month.” Can’t find the time or energy to tack a “-tion” onto your ‘vacay’?

[GuanoLad]

@eschereal

I disagree. On a jury, for example, there are often 3 extra panelists who hear the case and may take part in the deliberations if one of the primary jurors becomes unable to participate. They are called “alternates” (rhymes with “sluts”), and it feels like a more appropriate word than “alternatives”.

Well, you’re wrong. There’s no need to use a word that already has a meaning, and change it to mean something that there’s already a word for.

You’re used to it, so it sounds “right” to your ears, and it has become appropriate now that it’s used so commonly, but it’s unnecessary, and I hates it, I does Precious.

[MrDibble]

@salinqmind

1. they don’t go ‘on A holiday’, they ‘go on holiday.’

Both are used, actually.

[Thudlow_Boink]

@MrDibble

Both are used, actually.

Just as Americans could either “go on a vacation” or “go on vacation.”

[pulykamell]

@GuanoLad

Well, you’re wrong. There’s no need to use a word that already has a meaning, and change it to mean something that there’s already a word for.

You’re used to it, so it sounds “right” to your ears, and it has become appropriate now that it’s used so commonly, but it’s unnecessary, and I hates it, I does Precious.

And that noun meaning of “alternate” to mean a substitute goes back to the 1840s.

[septimus]

The use of ‘literally’ to mean ‘not literally’ is just the latest in a long line of words that get used backwards: Consider ‘pretty awful’ and ‘awfully pretty.’ But what really annoys me is the misuse of ‘exponentially.’

Quiz. Which of the following two sequences is growing ‘exponentially’?
[ul][li]1.03[/li][li]1.061[/li][li]1.093[/li][li]1.126[/li][li]1.160[/li][li]1.194[/li][li]1.230[/li][li]1.267[/li][li]1.305[/ul][/li]
or[ul][li]2[/li][li]16[/li][li]54[/li][li]128[/li][li]250[/li][li]432[/li][li]686[/li][li]1024[/li][li]1458[/ul][/li]

@ISiddiqui

Huh… I don’t think I’ve ever heard this one before (“Screen Saver” being used to refer to “Wallpaper”).

‘Wall paper’ is sort of silly since neither a wall not paper is involved. And in olden CRT days, some users deliberately choose dark ‘wallpaper’ in order to … wait for it … save their screens!

[Doug_K]

@GuanoLad

Well, you’re wrong. There’s no need to use a word that already has a meaning, and change it to mean something that there’s already a word for.

You’re used to it, so it sounds “right” to your ears, and it has become appropriate now that it’s used so commonly, but it’s unnecessary, and I hates it, I does Precious.

First off, the noun alternate and the verb alternate are two different words that are spelled the same but have different pronunciations and meanings.

Secondly, the noun alternate and the noun alternative have different meanings. An extra hammer in case you lose one is an alternate, because it’s still the same tool. Using a heavy wrench when you don’t have a hammer is an alternative.

[eschereal]

@septimus

… what really annoys me is the misuse of ‘exponentially.’

This, yes. I see “exponentially” used when the correct term is “geometrically”, but people use the former because it sounds more impressive. “Geometric” is, essentially, parabolic, “exponential” is hyperbolic. Incorrect usage is, um, hyperbole.

Also, single ‘quote’ marks are annoying as hell (except when used inside a double quote marked quotation).

[svd678]

Reach Out to for a simple phone call, not an emergency appeal.

[AskNott]

@Thudlow_Boink

Just as Americans could either “go on a vacation” or “go on vacation.”

That’s right. We could also “vacate,” but that usually means “absquatulate”, or “be forced to leave.”

[CCitizen]

Many people hate the words I like:

Homo Interneticus

Homo Interneticus Smartphonicus

[John_Mace]

@eschereal

This, yes. I see “exponentially” used when the correct term is “geometrically”, but people use the former because it sounds more impressive. “Geometric” is, essentially, parabolic, “exponential” is hyperbolic. Incorrect usage is, um, hyperbole.

Not so.

[DrDeth]

@Jennshark

"
My favorite Simpson’s word is “embiggens.” It doesn’t seem to register with anyone else so I’ve ceased using it.

That one was pretty silly. How do you feel about: contrafribularities, anispeptic, frasmotic, compunctuous or pericombobulation?

[Goofus]

I hate “the vast majority of.” In the vast majority of contexts, “almost all” looks and sounds so much better.

[Quimby]

I don’t want to spoil the discussion and please feel free to post what you want about the topic but while we have had many “Words I hate” threads, what I was curious about for this one was words you hate but ended up using anyway because they have just become the way people talk (or maybe for some other reason).

[Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker]

Well, two words: “How come” instead of “Why”